Woolly Popos

I had a very crafty weekend! I spent the weekend with my sister, Kathleen, the talented designer and seamstress of KH Designs -- NO BOYS ALLOWED :)

We sent the boys with my dear H (hers was out of town) and we took the girls and went shopping and made sushi and did crafts. Kathleen helped me finish a warm, woolly, winter project, which I already used, and I can't wait to show. But even better, I photographed my current batch of Woolly Popos in her sunny window on Sunday morning. I have some great wool right now, with perfect Autumn colors:






This one has a little pocket on the back, which you can use as a tooth-fairy (or tooth-monster) pillow. My friend Catie gave me that idea. Isn't that great?

I just posted all these and more in my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/woollypopo

New York Trip

I promised a full report of my trip to NYC, so here it is. We took the MegaBus. This was our view from the front seats at the top of the double-decker.

The trip down was great.
I always get excited when I arrive in The City. The atmosphere is just . . . there's nothing like it.

We reserved a hotel room through Hot Wire, so we didn't know what it would be like until after we reserved it, but it turned out to be a boutique hotel called the Night hotel, which turned out to be really fun. Everything was decorated black and white and very Urban Gothic. Here is the view looking in to the room:

Here is a close-up of the wallpaper. I love the thistles:

This is the bed. It would have been romantic, if I hadn't been sharing the room with my BFF from tenth grade:

And the black-tiled bathroom:

After checking in, we went shopping in the Fashion District (the bead stores -- wow), went to the top of the Empire State Building and took pictures . . .

Then we walked to Times Square, shopping along the way, and had dinner at 10 pm (very New York).
On Sunday we went to the Guggenheim, and then down to Greenwich Village to visit Purl SoHo, shopping along the way (are you starting to sense a theme, here?). We had a fantastic lunch at an Indian restaurant in the NYU area, and took the subway back to the hotel to pick up our bags. Suddenly, it was late, and we had to run the 14 blocks to the bus station. We were toward the end of the line, so we didn't get seats together, so the trip back was not as pleasant. All in all, though, it was a relatively reasonable way to take a whirlwind tour of the Big Apple. I'll definitely do it again!

New House

Well, it's like new on the outside. Here are the pictures I promised.
We really like the color, and other people seem to like it, too.

The decorative molding shows up so much more, now.

And the greenery looks nice in front of it. Also, I didn't get a good picture of the foundation, but even the grey stone looks nicer now with against the contrast of the strong red.

Here it is in all its glory, our "little red house."

New York trip -- another sneak peak

My friend Penny visited from Vancouver last week. Over the weekend I took her to the City. I have lots to report, but here is a sneak peak: some of my loot from the great shops we went to. There are Day of the Dead skulls, plastic goldfish, a scarab beetle in clear plastic, and a few of the fabulous fabrics they had at Purl Soho. (I could have spent days just shopping for beads and fabrics!)

Sneak peak

After many long, hot days over the summer spent scraping, sanding, patching, caulking and painting, the project that began a year ago is done. Our house, which used to be a pale, tired, chalky grey, is now "Pomegranate."

Here is what it looked like Halloween 2009 (blech):

And here is a glimpse of what it looks like now

We also replaced some windows that had failed, and had a mason repair the foundation. It's like a whole new house. I'll post some beauty shots soon -- wait till you see!

First Day of School

It's old news by now, but Teddy started Kindergarten. Once we did the orientation and he got to know his teacher a little bit, he was excited (particularly to ride the bus with his big brother).
I don't know if you can tell in these pictures, but I can: he suddenly had a fever the day before the first day of school, and he's still looking pale and has circles under his eyes here. I thought he was going to miss the first day of school, just like Troy did, but he pulled it off.
The big cone filled with treats is a German tradition. My sister made this one for Troy two years ago.They had school Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then a long weekend.
On Monday morning when I woke him up he asked "Do I have to go to school AGAIN? How many times do I have to go?!"

Welcome to the real world, little buddy.

On the bunting train

I've been seeing photos of hand made bunting, bunting how-to's, and bunting for sale all over the internet lately. Crochet, vintage hankies, paper, anything you can think of.

I was skeptical, though. Why? Where do you put it? Then, I saw bunting made out of felted wool circles (here). I was interested, but not won over, yet. Then I saw some in real life, on the big screened-in porch of my sister's beautiful sea-side house, and it looked fabulous (you can just see it in this picture, hanging across the porch door, here).
When I got home, I looked around, and seeing the bare windows of our sun room, it struck me -- they need bunting, of course! I'm sure you guessed that I would pick the wool circles.